1941 Pictorial Map of the United States

This is a 1941 Ernest Dudley Chase pictorial map of the continental United States. Pictorial 'icons' fill the country from coast to coast and highlight American industry, culture, natural wonders, and resources.

A Closer Look

Each state's capitol building marks the state capital and banners mark cities and towns across each state. Wildlife including bison, bighorn sheep, bears, and deer appear alongside livestock. National parks merit lavish illustrations, including the Grand Canyon, Arches, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Yosemite, and Mt. Rainier. Fifty-two vignettes encircle the map and continue the appreciation for the United States' natural beauty as well as its architectural and cultural achievements, such as the Lincoln Memorial, Rockefeller Center, and the Field Museum.

20th Century Pictorial Cartography

Pictorial qualities have been common in cartography from at least from the 16th century, when publishers like Braun and Hogenberg incorporated view-like qualities and other pictorial elements into their famous city plans. Braun and Hogenberg, and similar cartographers, issued their town books to express, not necessarily the geography of their subjects, but rather the 'essence' of the town/city. As mathematics and surveying principles became more advanced, travel increased, and the ability to translate 2 dimensional cartographic perspectives into an understanding of the actual world became commonplace, maps themselves transformed. This trend is a recognizable progression that evolved cartographic conventions from the 17th to the 19th centuries. By the late 19th century most maps had become geographical tools that illustrated the region cartographically but failed in the original raison d'être as expressed by Braun and Hogenberg, to illustrate a place's 'essence'. So, where a city map of 19th century Paris might provide a completely navigable presentation of the city, one could glean almost nothing of Paris' character from it. In the late 18th century, the first modern 'pictorial' style maps developed. These maps, like Tomas Lopez's 1788 map of Seville, attempted to provide both cartographic accuracy and pictorial elements that might convey the character of the city. In that case, Lopez incorporated pictorial vignettes to illustrate important buildings and monuments. This style became increasingly common throughout the 19th century and early 20th centuries, particularly for centers of commerce like London, Paris, and Rome, where they are often mass produced and referred to as 'monumental' maps. The style further evolved in the early to mid-20th century, when revolutionary cartographers and illustrators like MacDonald Gill, Jo Mora, Frank Dorn, Ernest Dudley Chase, and many others, combined vignette style illustrations, modern printing techniques, inspiration from Japanese printmaking and manga, and from clever satirical cartographers/artists like Fred Rose, to produce maps that once again focused on revealing the essence a place, usually, but not always, at the sacrifice of cartographic precision.

Publication History and Census

This map was created and published by Ernest Dudley Chase in 1941. We note twelve examples in institutional collections and examples of different editions with varying color palettes appear on the market from time to time.